Message from the Executive Director

This month as opposed to focusing my message on a timely or current hot topic in the industry, I wanted to focus on some of the current and hot topics within WINBC itself. What have we been working on this month you ask? The short answer is A LOT.

WINBC underwent a bit of a facelift in November as we launched a new website. A big thank you to the crew at E-Cubed for their hard work and vision. Please have a visit to see what we have planned in the next few months www.winbc.org and also let us know your thoughts on our new look and feel.

Additionally, applications for our 2nd Annual SPIF Vancouver event (Service Provider Investment Forum) closed on the 27th and the 2nd phase, the vetting process, commenced this week. Companies selected for further consideration will be forwarded to the SPIF committee for final selection. Final applicant companies will be required to do a review presentation, what we refer to as a polishing session in preparation for the main event January 26th. For those of you who didn’t apply to present at SPIF this event should still be of great interest as select visiting SPIFers from the Bay Area will be participating in a panel session the afternoon of Thursday January 25th followed by a reception and dinner with our Keynote Speaker, Jason Cohenour , President and Chief Executive Officer of Sierra Wireless. The day will offer ample opportunities to connect both with our local wireless community as well as 15 plus visiting representatives from the Bay Area.

Lastly, applications for WIC’07 launched last week. This will be WINBC’s 4th year producing the Wireless Innovation Contest, last year the Contest received 53 million media impressions and exposure and recognition worldwide. WIC’07 is open to Canadian and US based organizations and companies that provide wireless technologies or solutions demonstrating innovation in driving wireless adoption in North America. Entries are also welcomed from students who will be judged solely against other students. Our powerhouse of judges are looking for exciting companies providing real solutions right now that are; simple to use, easy to deploy, and have potential to increase customers ROI.  Tell us your own WIC’ked wireless story that’s helping to pave the wireless way. For more information or to apply visit www.winbc.org/wic.

Best regards,
Shana Korotash
Executive Director
WINBC

MEMBERS’ CORNER

WINLAB

WINLAB is a very important initiative for the BC wireless community. The WINLAB facility will be integrated into the Bell Innovation Center (currently in the design phase) in Vancouver and will facilitate activities such as technology showcases, wireless workshops, technical and entrepreneurial mentoring, usability and focus group activities as well as a broad range of technical tasks such as mobile application and device testing.  The facility will have state of the art wireless equipment including a mobile messaging and multimedia platform, location based services platform, connectivity to a live production network, a private 3G network and Bell’s development network. More

MEMBER NEWS HEADLINES

Busy as ever, we’ve cherry-picked among the announcements from our wireless companies.  So, without much further ado, below are snippets for the month of November.  If you are a member and would like to have your news features in the WINBC newsletter, please send your releases to our editor, Asa Zanatta at azanatta@spiritcommunications.ca.

Sierra Wireless AirCard 850 Wireless Data Card Now Available From O2 UK

Sierra Wireless and O2 UK today announced that O2 has selected the Sierra Wireless AirCard 850 wireless wide area PC Card to provide 3G network access for customers in the United Kingdom. More

Unity Wireless Nears Phase-One Completion of $1.1M India Project for 2006

Unity Wireless this week released an update on its sole vendor supply agreement for microwave repeaters with one of India's largest wireless network operators.
More

Icron Expands Market for USB Extension and Prepares for Next Generation Wireless USB 2.0

Icron Technologies (TSX Venture: IT), the developers of ExtremeUSB, continue to expand the market for USB extension and wireless USB applications. More

INDUSTRY NEWS headlines

BCIT Computing Students Seek Technology Projects

The BCIT School of Computing and Academic Studies is now accepting Industry projects for its Industry Sponsored Student Project (ISSP) program. Industry projects are invited for the January 2007 term for two programs: Computer Systems Diploma and Bachelor of Technology. More

INNOVATION NEWS

Member company Infowave showcases the benefits of its technology in our innovation column this month.  If you are interested in presenting your technology, please contact our editor Asa Zanatta.

Charging Forward With Wireless

Making decisions based on facts rather than guesswork is critical to the success of any operation, utilities included. With this in mind, Hydro One, one of the largest distributors of electricity in the Canadian province of Ontario, wanted to find a solution that would allow it to collect the data it needed to meet the challenges of operating in a highly regulated industry. More

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Events

telecom world 2006
Hong Kong, China
Dec 4 - 8, 2006

JETRO
JETRO business matching opportunity between Japanese and North American companies
Jan 8 - 11, 2007

ptc'07
The 29th Pacific Telecom Conference & Exhibition
Jan 14 - 17, 2007

massive
Technology Show
Mar 28, 2007

Mission to Turkey
Telecom Sector Market
Visit to Turkey
Feb 25 - Mar 2, 2007